The 2002 book Vitamin C: How Best to Use It is a breath of fresh air. Sheffrey shows unusual candor and a special gift for writing when he shares his insight into this subject that could only have come from many years of taking high doses of C. As the back cover says, this is really a Vitamin C reference book. But it's an unusual reference in that it's lots of fun to read too. It will be great for those wanting to know more about vitamin C---be they a vitamin C neophyte, a high-doser of C or someone in between. Dr. Sheffrey does an excellent job taking apart deceptive clinical trials and the non-stop misinformation we are getting about C. He's great at explaining its benefits, its safety and how much C is enough. His take on how much is enough is decidedly different from dear old Linus'; Sheffrey's take is that teenagers need only their dietary vitamin C, that healthy adults should supplement with 100 mg C with each meal, and that only the sick or those over 55 need the much higher doses recommended by Pauling. Sheffrey says that new C users should first be sure they have a normal iron status and no rare condition that is off-limits to high-dose C. Sheffrey's coverage of C's side effects, both real and alleged, is the best I've ever seen in a single volume. Sheffrey's only two blind spots seem to be his belief in the Lipid Hypothesis of heart disease and his improper use of alpha lipoic acid. Since these are mentioned only in passing they hardly detract from the book's great writing style and terrific content.

I consider the last chapter to be one of the best on Vitamin C ever written, and that includes Linus Pauling's writings in HTLLFB. In the field of orthomolecular medicine Sheffrey'sVitamin C opus easily ranks among the works of Pauling, Cheraskin, or Hoffer. It's a superb distillation of thousands of hours of research, but without any rose-colored glasses. I highly recommend you find it and read it. Just one more thing - thank you Dr. Sheffrey for writing it.

- book review by VanCanadain Vancouver, Canada

On the back cover the publisher wrote:

...In 1937 a scientist reported that vitamin C had inactivated every virus and toxin it was tested against. In 1975 a scientist reported that vitamin C minces viral nucleic acid, all viruses being susceptible. Also in 1975 a scientist wrote that there's no excuse for anyone dying of a viral disease.

Why, then, isn't vitamin C the medicine of choice for viral diseases? The answer: drug marketing tactics have ambushed it regularly with deceptive clinical trials along with scary rhetoric about toxicity. There's just too much money at stake to allow inexpensive C to be recognized as a potent therapeutic substance, for viral as well as many other diseases.

Dr. Sheffrey, a former clinical instructor at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry and former dental columnist for the Detroit Free Press, began a 6,000-hour review of the medical literature on vitamin C in 1986. He has written and lectured about C since 1992 and since 1994 has sent, at no charge, 228,000 pamphlets summarizing the information to doctors across the country...

Vitamin C: how best to use it: how improper clinical trials have misled us!: separating fact from fiction to ensure proper use / Stephen Sheffrey, D.D.S. -- 2nd ed. (2002)

......Only a few individuals have written of their own benefit from taking large amounts of C for years. Klenner wrote that on 10 to 20 grams a day the brain was clearer, the mind more active, the body less weary and the memory more retentive. Sherry Lewin, author of the 1976 book Vitamin C: Its Molecular Biology and Medical Potential, normally took 2 grams a day. Earlier, he had been skeptical of the idea that extra C is beneficial but began to take 50 mg a day because his wife thought the pill might relieve symptoms of his frequent colds. Later, she substituted 1,000-mg pills, saying she couldn't get the smaller ones. Not wanting to throw them away, he used them---and had less misery from colds, moreso when he took a gram an hour. He also noticed fewer of the symptoms that had preceded a heart attack in 1967.

......Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, who first isolated C, didn't write of his dose but a magazine article stated that a gram a day was his usual dose except during a bout with pneumonia at age 84, when he took 8 grams daily. He died at 92 in 1986, having lived a very interesting life. He did write of that [Lost in the twentieth century. Ann Rev Biochem 1963; 32:1-14]

......Biochemist Irwin Stone wrote that his daily dose was 3 to 5 grams. Another authority takes 5 grams a day. When we talked via phone he seemed reluctant to reveal the amount. There's a feeling that high-dosers are shelved alongside those sincere folks who tell of having been beamed aboard a spaceship. But a scientist I talked with did not hesitate to mention his daily dose of 36 grams. When asked why so much he replied that he'd been subject to infections all his life until he tried C in Various amounts. He found the most effective amount to be his bowel tolerance limit---36 grams.

Tue Nov 22, 2011 6:54 am

Dolev

quack

Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:01 amPosts: 791

Re: Author Stephen Sheffrey's 'Personal C Experience'

Quote:

Sheffrey's take is that teenagers need only their dietary vitamin C, that healthy adults should supplement with 100 mg C with each meal, and that only the sick or those over 55 need the much higher doses recommended by Pauling.

Healthy adults only 100 mg three times a day? What's a healthy adult? Would that be enough to keep a healthy adult healthy?

He may base this on early studies. I've seen that Stone quotes a lot of studies using amounts of 500 mg or less, and that these amounts were found quite beneficial. Maybe so, but my belief is that what worked 50 years ago is not enough today because of the greatly increased environmental toxins and emotional stress of todays world.

_________________Dolev

Tue Nov 22, 2011 4:59 pm

VanCanada

Page 164 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Dolev, let's not forget the great decrease in food quality over that time span too. And Chernobyl radiation from 1986 onwards. And Fukushima radiation from 2011. And so much more...

Rust never sleeps.

Stephen Sheffrey wrote:

......Linus Pauling, who took other vitamins and minerals also, began taking 3 grams of C daily at about age 70. He raised the intake periodically until reaching his tolerance limit of 18 grams. More was taken when ill or if his schedule required an increase. He died at 93 in 1994. Cathcart wrote in 1992 that in 22 years he had taken about 361 kilograms of C. It averages out at about 45 grams a day but, like Pauling, he started with lower doses and as tolerance developed increased the intake to maintain benefits.

......Cathcart and Pauling can be considered true experts on C because they have taken high doses for years, raising the amount whenever necessary. Those who have not had this personal experience cannot know all about C. They're like the early mapmaker who could only print HERE BE DRAGONS in the blank areas where he'd never been.

......High-dose C is indeed a blank area in the medical literature. No academic effort has been made to explore it---DRAGONS!!! No doubt this is due to lack of funding. It is unfortunate because some of the major benefits of extra C occur only at the high doses that healthcare personnel ignore. Information about those "astronomical amounts" is available to the public only by hearsay and the few writings of high-dosers.

......Perhaps you'll develop a better understanding of the nature of C if I relate my own experience far beyond the RDA horizon. In early 1986, at age 69, while browsing in a bookstore I happened to come across Pauling's new book, How to Live Longer and Feel Better, mentioned earlier. I was aware that he had written books on the common cold and flu but hadn't read them. Like most people, I felt that if vitamin C was so effective it would be used regularly by the medical community. Dentists, like physicians, believe the wellspring of all reliable health information is located in the university nesting areas where they fledged.

......The book's title was appealing, however, because during the previous summer I had begun to feel my age. A neck muscle developed a soreness after I'd hoed the garden. It persisted all summer, demanding a wince every time I turned my head. Hauling a few loads of dirt in the wheelbarrow would bother my back for a week. Sometime earlier a slow fungus had invaded my toenails, thickening them. Then the same species, or a relative, began to spread a dry non-itching ruddy sheet slowly across the top of my left foot, just behind the toes. Another relative of the clan found a home in my left ear, requiring a bit of medication about every 4 or 5 days to control the itching. A black slash, about the size of a grain of rice, appeared in the visual field of my right eye. And weariness came on sooner than usual, a most disappointing curse to one who revels in slowly changing the landscape by the regular application of physical labor.

Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:19 pm

VanCanada

Pages 165-166 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Quote:

......All that, yet I had been taking 500 mg of C a day plus extra vitamins and minerals for several years.

......In his book, Pauling advised taking from 6 to 18 grams of C day. Spoonfuls! Like nearly everyone else at the time, I thought such doses were toxic! To make sure the amount was not a misprint I visited the medical library nearby to read a few of the papers referenced in the book.

......Assured that a 6-gram dose wouldn't be fatal, but still somewhat apprehensive, I took 4 half-gram tablets after breakfast one day, was still breathing at noon so took another 4 after lunch and a third such dose after the evening meal. No diarrhea or other reactions occurred. At the time I wasn't aware that about 20% of those who take more than a gram or two would develop intestinal gas or cramps or some other nuisance reaction.

......The first benefits were noticeable within a week: the ear stopped itching. Apparently the larger dose had sounded reveille to the immune system. And I felt stronger, as if I could tool around with the wheelbarrow all day as soon as the ground was free of frost. Other benefits followed. The fungus on my foot that had been advancing like a giant ameba began to retreat. In 4 weeks there was (no) sign of it. The thickened toenails responded slower but eventually slimmed down to almost normal. And in a few months I could no longer detect the black slash in my right visual field.

......Best of all, a "spastic gut" condition, a bothersome thing for years, vanished. Now why would extra C, which causes cramps in some individuals, rectify a condition in my innards that was itself a cause of cramps? Is C neutralizing a continuous flow of toxins generated by bacteria? Or is it controlling a remnant viral population, the measles virus, for example? According to some reports, measles virus can persist in the gut for years. Whatever, being rid of the nuisance meant that I could eat beans and salads without experiencing discomfort that once had caused me to feel that such food was fit only for rabbits. I felt better than I had in years, assured that the fountain of youth bubbled up from an aquifer of vitamin C solution.

......If this narrative were set to music the sound would be light and bouncy, the kind that would prompt a party of oldsters to dance around a picnic table loaded with goodies and C pills while radiating all the frenetic joy captured in beer commercials. ...Up to this point. Then the music would turn ominous, as when the wolf comes to blow the piggie's house down.

......Ten weeks after the start of the regimen the ear began to itch again. Doubts about the permanence of benefits began to brew. Those ongoing horror stories about kidney stones and dire toxicities alleged by the anti-C mafia added to the concern. From the beginning they hadn't completely vanished from my thoughts. I considered abandoning the regimen. Meanwhile, I had been visiting the medical library regularly to learn more about the vitamin and why it generated so much controversy.

......The more I read, the more I came to realize that C was being treated unfairly by the system. Although there were legitimate concerns, bias was evident and the footprints of a marketing strategy could be detected in the literature. A veteran cynic might suspect that certain bad guys in black didn't care to have people feeling so well that markets for expensive drugs would shrink. But I was no veteran. I had only begun to read.

......My decision to continue the 6-gram regimen was influenced by two factors. First, I didn't care to rekindle my feeling of the previous summer that infirmity was fast approaching; second, if Pauling could take 18 grams a day I should be able to take 8. I raised to that amount. The ear itch vanished. It returned again about 10 weeks later. I raised my intake to 10 grams a day. By then I had adopted an attitude that if being a victim of toxicity was to be my lot it would warn others and provide critics with the pleasure of reporting a casualty of the "fad" of high-dosing on vitamin C.

Tue Nov 29, 2011 6:33 am

VanCanada

Pages 167-168 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Quote:

......Fortunately, I had no reactions at any time. If I had known at the start that extra C is a hazard in iron overload, however, I would not have begun the regimen without first having my iron status determined. Even though the hazards of extra C are quite rare, advocates of high intakes should be sure to mention them. Many individuals who take warfarin, for example, are probably not aware that more than a gram of C per day might reduce the effectiveness of their dose.

......The ear itch kept returning about every 10 weeks and I kept increasing my daily intake by 2 grams, wondering if the upward ratcheting would ever end. Finally, at 16 grams a day, the itch failed to return on schedule. This is a good demonstration of the tolerance effect---the build-up of enzymes by the body to handle the large amount and a probable change in gut bacteria to species that relish the vitamin. In my case, the effects of both were overwhelmed each time I raised the dose, allowing a little more C, probably not more than a few milligrams, to reach areas where it bestowed a benefit.

......A person who lacks the convenience of an itch as a guide to adequate dosing must look for other symptoms that announce the need to increase intake. It could be a difficult call. Some benefits appear so slowly, and might fade as slowly, that attributing them to C would be guesswork. Before I began the high-dose regimen my shoulder, left knee and right hip joints twinged a bit from arthritis. They don't now, 16 years later, but the condition resolved so slowly that I can't remember when the improvement was first noticed. And my neck vertebrae grated as if in gravel whenever I turned my head but at some undetermined time the "gravel" converted to fine sand.

......Before I ever thought of taking extra C I had noticed recurring discomfort in the right abdomen that suggested a gas pocket in the gut. It turned out to be a stone in the ureter, the tube that drains a kidney into the bladder. I had been on the C regimen for several months before learning of it. If the condition hadn't bothered before high dosing I would have blamed C. Six years later a stone in the same spot bothered again. It was not caused by C either. In both cases my poor sense of thirst was at fault. I hadn't been drinking coffee, tea, soft drinks, beer or even much water. The first stone should have been fair warning but a second was needed to to make me change my ways.

......Now I take more fluids plus a 100-mg tablet of magnesium citrate-B6 3 times a day. A study reported in 1974 found that magnesium and a small amount of vitamin B6 reduced stone recurrence dramatically [J Urol 1974; 112:509]. No third stone has shown up in the 10 years since the second stone occurred. When checked recently, my blood oxalate level was in the normal range, slightly above the midpoint. My uric acid level was slightly below the middle of the normal range.

......While I was building up to the 16-gram regimen I had no colds, just some sniffles about every third or fourth year, presumably when diminishing antibodies to the viruses needed boosting. I had a history of enduring 6 to 8 cold sores every winter. Since taking high-dose C I've had a total of 2. One occurred after hard work exhausted me. The second followed a bout with the 1994 flu. I had failed to raise my dose at the first hint of attack, thinking the vague symptoms were due to a stray cold virus and would soon go away.

......To experiment, I'd had no flu shots between 1988 and 1997, hoping to lure a virus into combat. One took the bait in 1990 and was quickly vanquished with 4 grams of C an hour. By hour 20 all the flu symptoms were gone. An experienced doser would have reduced C intake at hour 21 but I didn't. Only then did diarrhea occur. The experience---the realization that 80 grams of C could be swallowed in less than a day during an illness without a change in bowel habits---is an epiphany that would convert even a hard-core doubter into an advocate of vitamin C.

Sat Dec 03, 2011 1:13 pm

VanCanada

Pages 169-170 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Quote:

......The foregoing was my experience with the 1990 flu. The 1994 bug that ambushed me had advanced too far to be aborted. When I realized my mistake, the mean reputation that preceded that year's flu suggested the ordeal would be long and debilitating. I couldn't block it. I could only minimize the symptoms with frequent dosing after first downing fatty food, usually canned salmon, ice cream, or peanut butter on bread, sometimes as often as every 20 minutes. The disease ran a benign course. No misery; just a lazy feeling for two days and a bit of diarrhea from overdosing. Compared to previous bouts with flu in past years, this was cake.

......My father had a growth in the crease alongside his nose that had reached the size of a blueberry. It was a basal-cell carcinoma. He had been painting the cracked-open surface with iodine. When he came to visit he resisted making an appointment to have it removed until I showed him a picture of a man who had lost a quarter of his face to the scalpel before every last cell of the cancerous "rodent ulcer" had been eliminated.

......The same type of growth had started in the same location on my face. Not long before I began high-dosing with C a little red dot appeared in the center of the dark growth. I had been watching for signs of breakdown and scabbing that would suggest it was the same growth my father had. Still I didn't think of removing it. When I was taking 8 or 10 grams of C a day the growth began to recede. A year later only a raised freckle marked the spot. Klenner wrote that he had eliminated several basal-cell growths by applying a paste of C. I tried his method on the freckle for a week, until the area was quite inflamed from the acidic nature of the paste. After the redness subsided the freckle remained.

......Next, a similar growth appeared on the other side of my face in the typical location, this one after I'd taken high-dose C for 10 years. It too followed the same pattern of steady expansion, then fading. At present, not even a freckle remains of either. I think they both would have continued as basal-cell carcinomas but can't be sure as no biopsy was done. They were not warts. Some warts can be removed quickly by applying a C paste twice a day. Others are more resistant but eventually succumb also.

......Each of my closest relatives---mother, father and brother---suffered from shingles when in their 70s. To date, thanks to C, I'm sure, I've not had the disease. Prior to 1986 when a physician friend was afflicted with shingles as mentioned on page 1 [case WC], I hadn't known that C could treat it. Since then my knowledge of the vitamin's antiviral nature has expanded somewhat. A few years later he phoned about a bridge partner who had just developed the typical blisters on this abdomen. I suggested the man take 3 or 4 grams of C after each meal. My physician friend, wary of such a massive amount, advised his bridge partner to take only 5 grams a day. It helped for a time but the inadequate dose provided no sustained relief.

......Specious clinical trials plus constant mention of toxicity lock most physicians into the belief that C has little therapeutic value and is dangerous in high doses. Any treatment not "evidence based" is looked upon as questionable. Deceptive trials have denied C the benefit of good evidence, therefore it is classed as alternative therapy, interpreted by many to mean quackery.

Wed Dec 07, 2011 10:06 am

VanCanada

Pages 171-172 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Quote:

......This pervasive bias against alternative therapy has elicited some interesting comments on the subject from establishment members. The Lancet prints a column in which questions are asked of prominent physicians and educators. Questions such as who was your most influential teacher; what is your greatest love [or pleasure, fear, regret, etc]; how do you relax; how do you want to die and other probes intended to bring out the essence of the individual. A pair of questions often answered: What alternative therapies have you tried? Did they work?

......Some answers: "Absolutely not!" [7-1-98]. "Alcohol." [7-25-98]. "You must be joking!" [10-3-98]. "None. But I have spent...time defending the right of...zanies, oddballs and fanatics to pursue their dubious visions of healing." [10-17-98]. "I haven't tired any alternative therapy and it has worked so far." [10-31-98]. "I'm saving alternative therapies until I succumb to an alternative disease." [11-14-98]. "None. If they worked they'd no longer be alternative." [12-19/26-98].

......Ponder whether the editor would have printed this answer: "If certain alternative therapies had been evaluated in fair trials they would no longer be alternative."

......We shouldn't omit comments by those who were not so biased that curiosity was stifled. Examples: "About a million. Currently flaxseed oil---and who knows, maybe this one will work!" [2-6-97]. "Broccoli, soy milk, green tea. I'll find out in 50 years." [5-1-99]. One felt echinacea worked [5-23-98]. Another favored vitamins and minerals [1-2-99]. And one was so bold as to admit that he'd tried C for a cold but wasn't sure it worked [8-1-98].

......A gentleman began his reply with: "A certain disregard, or even contempt, for our minor ailments is a therapy that is not used often enough" [1-9-99].

......Be aware, however, that pinpointing the fine line between a minor and a major ailment is not always easy. To guess wrong could be disastrous.

......A problem I encountered arose because of contempt for a minor ailment along with an inability to locate the line between it and a major illness. I felt so well armored with high-dose C that no disease could reach me. I'd had no pain at all from a prostate "reaming" at age 70 while the groans of others in adjoining rooms were somewhat unsettling. Whoever said C is absolutely super as a painkiller was correct [at least for that condition but a stone in the ureter is another matter]. Ten years later, still taking 16 grams a day, I continued to feel great. Sure, the aging hulk was lower in the water but had no list to port or starboard.

......The ear had begun to itch occasionally, however. I increased the daily dose to 18 grams, then to 20 soon afterward. The need for so much so soon should have alerted me, I suppose, that something more than normal aging was increasing the demand.

......The spring of 1997 marked the beginning of this increased requirement, when, after I'd turned 80, thinking I was 40, I decided to extent a concrete driveway alongside the garage. I used a mixer because the job was too small and access too limited for delivery by truck. After starting, one must continue working at a concrete job until it's finished, come hell or Murphy's law, the equivalent, which is sure to kick in. Inhaling cement dust that hung in the air like fog during the windless day while I pitched shovelful of ingredients into the hungry mixer was no great comfort either. But I was only working beyond the point of exhaustion, as was my custom, confident that high-dose C would bounce the body back to normal in a day or two.

......The bounce-back was not 100%. Inhaled cement dust may have limited it. Alkaline particles could have weakened lung tissue and invited infection. In midsummer, after a few more hare-work periods to show contempt for the minor ailment, pneumonia became a threat. Six different antibiotics in succession failed to banish the feeling that the lungs were not up to par.

......I visited a pulmonary specialist. While pondering the results of a standard checkup plus my answers to questions, he wondered whether I could tell the difference between bronchitis, heartburn, hunger and a gas pocket. His diagnosis: gastroesophageal reflux---heartburn. On thinking about it, heartburn could be expected because of my routine: a snack plus 4 grams of ascorbic acid just before bedtime. Topping off a little food with an acid drink is not a good idea. Along with the usual advice for handling heartburn, the doctor prescribed cisapride, trade name Propulsid, to promote movement of food out of the stomach.

Mon Dec 12, 2011 7:06 am

Jacquie

Vitamin C Master

Joined: Sat Aug 13, 2011 1:10 pmPosts: 223Location: Pacific NW

Re: Author Stephen Sheffrey's 'Personal C Experience'

Just wanted to say, these excerpts got my interest, and I just ordered this book on Amazon. So thanks for the posts!

Mon Dec 12, 2011 8:28 am

VanCanada

Re: Author Stephen Sheffrey's 'Personal C Experience'

You are most welcome.

Your post alone has made it worthwhile for all the time I spent transcribing this chapter.

I wish you all the best in health and happiness.

- VanCanada

Wed Dec 14, 2011 11:22 am

Dolev

quack

Joined: Fri Nov 25, 2005 3:01 amPosts: 791

Re: Author Stephen Sheffrey's 'Personal C Experience'

I second what Jacquie said. Thanks for the post, and I also just ordered the book.

_________________Dolev

Wed Dec 14, 2011 3:21 pm

VanCanada

Pages 173-174. 2002 book by Stephen Sheffrey, D.D.S.

.You're welcome. I appreciate your comments.'

Quote:

......Thirty days later, on the morning before a scheduled return visit, I wakened with a swollen left ankle. The sign always appears in the left ankle first, it is said---the sign of heart failure. The combination of continual overexertion, infection and heartburn had resulted in a serious problem. Antibiotics and cisapride may have been factors also. The drug book PDR begins its information about cisapride with a warning that heart damage might occur. Due to a lapse in alertness I had not read the warning before taking the drug. Later the Wall Street Journal [6-30-98] announced that the FDA had issued a strong warning against routine use of it. Finally, in March 2000, the drug was removed from the market because of a number of reported deaths.

......The pulmonary specialist had me wheeled to the nearby hospital. Now here is why I'm relating this experience: nearly everyone will be hospitalized sooner or later, including those who take extra C, so be aware of this hazard: The hospital staff may not give you the amount of C you have been accustomed to taking! When the nurse, a man, checked me over I told of my high dose and the rebound effect if it is discontinued. It went over like small talk. Later a resident physician examined me. I spoke of the need for at least 4 grams of C after each meal. He smiled, the patronizing kind a mother would use when a kiddie tells of a bunny that goes lippity-lippity down a garden path.

......The evening medication included two little pills, probably 100 mg each. The nurse wouldn't say. I complained. He said we could talk about it in the morning. When he came in at six in the morning I was putting on my clothes.

......"I'm getting out of here," I said

......"No you're not."

......"The hell I'm not! You can't keep me here!"

......He left. The day-shift resident physician entered, a bright young lady I'd met before in the specialist's office. I thought she would understand the problem but the standard bias agains C governed her approach. Although many medications are not reduced abruptly, she didn't feel that C is in that class. Nothing I could say would change her mind and she said I might die if I left the hospital.

......I might die if I stayed there! I thought. I left.

......The lesson here is that a high-doser who is hospitalized risks a compounding of the illness due to the rebound effect. Abrupt stoppage of even a gram of C can damage tissue in some persons. Note the retinal hemorrhages a diabetic developed [p 122]. Note that disease afflicted millions when the potato shortage deprived the people of Ireland of their daily gram [p 90].

......I mourn the loss of a friend whose gram of C a day was stopped abruptly when pneumonia put him in hospital at 70. Perhaps he wouldn't have survived anyway but lack of his usual dose further reduced his chances, which, in my opinion, would have increased substantially by intravenous infusion of 100 grams a day. Although some hospitals recognize a patient's need for maintaining an adequate C level, others regard the taking of supplements as interfering with their own therapy. It's been said that a collection of ideas about C from the latter institutions would constitute a major exhibit on The Antiques Roadshow.

......Cathcart advised high dosers to carry a wallet card to alert hospital personnel of the need for continuing the dose. In my case a card would have been useless. Better to have a friend who can make sure the directions on the card are followed. If the usual daily dose continues to be disregarded.......there's enough evidence in the medical literature to support a conclusion that the patient is not receiving proper care.

......I checked into another hospital a week later. This time I brought along a week's supply of C in my shaving kit. Taking it without being observed was no problem. How sad that one must resort to stealth in order to avoid the risk of a prolonged hospital stay. Instead of rejecting C it should be infused routinely, as hospital patients are known to have low C levels.

......The supply of C to primates in zoos receives better attention.

Fri Dec 16, 2011 11:33 am

majkinetor

Vitamin C Expert

Joined: Fri Sep 10, 2010 8:36 amPosts: 906

Re: Author Stephen Sheffrey's 'Personal C Experience'

I already talked about this with Owen, but from my research I didn't find any evidence on rebound effect. Everywhere I encountered it on, it was said it is theoretical. For instance, on wiki:

Quote:

Rebound scurvy" is a theoretical, never observed, condition that could occur when daily intake of vitamin C is rapidly reduced from a very large amount to a relatively low amount. Advocates suggest this is an exaggeration of the rebound effect which occurs because ascorbate-dependent enzyme reactions continue for 24–48 hours after intake is lowered, and use up vitamin C which is not being replenished

The problem with hospital might not be rebound effect at all, but other factors like

- stress , hence depletion of C via means different then rebound scurvy- possible surgery, which is known to deplete C and risk infection. - bad food (typical for hospitals)- hospital infections- lack of movement and sunlight- medication, which might deplete other vitamins/minerals.

I did notice the effect on myself although i am not sure. It looks like I am more prone to mild infection after sudden stop...

Sat Dec 17, 2011 3:30 am

VanCanada

Pages 175-176 of Vitamin C: How Best to Use It

Quote:

......Because the ACE inhibitor I was given tends to make one cough, my frequent whoops were attributed to the drug until my temperature began to rise. The pneumonia, now definite, was cleared up by azithromycin, a drug I hadn't used. I was discharged feeling much better. The heart ejection fraction which was at 20% is much higher now, more than 4 years later. I have added acetyl-L-carnitine, alpha lipoic acid, Co-Q 10, flax oil, and more vitamin E and folic acid to my regimen. Although I don't make unreasonable demands on the heart anymore, I can push the mower around for an hour without becoming winded.

......The bronchial infection which appeared to trigger all the later events has returned 3 times. Extra C can be of great benefit in many situations but obviously not for this condition. A 5-day course of azithromycin cleared the infection the first time. Several months later when it returned it was routed with only 4 capsules of echinacea, one after each meal. Only 3 capsules were needed when the infection threatened a third time.

......The above paragraph was written as a lead-in to another warning: You'll recall from chapter 3 that echinacea prompts certain white cells to release necrosis factor and that this may do more harm than good in patients with certain diseases. I've read that heart failure is one of them. Echinacea should be used as little as possible by those of us with that condition.

......A hard-core critic of extra C might say, "Aha! You took too much and it damaged your heart!"

......Not so. During recovery I raised my intake to 36 grams a day and afterward reduced it to 28 grams, not the 20 I had been taking at the beginning of the problem. I have raised it since to about 32 grams.

......I don't measure doses precisely; just take a high-rounded teaspoon of ascorbic acid powder in about a quarter cup of tomato-vegetable juice after breakfast; the same amount in a half cup of orange juice at noon; and again that much in a half cup of cranberry cocktail-grape juice after the evening meal. About an hour before bedtime, after a snack I take 2 rounded teaspoons of the bitter C---calcium ascorbate powder---in a half cup of water. When weighed recently, a day's dose amounted to a little over 32 grams.

......C is not a cure-all. It hasn't quieted the mild ringing in my ears that began in the 1960's. I didn't expect it to. But I did hope it would prevent the leg cramps that occasionally disturb my sleep. It didn't. My current stategy is to stretch the calf muscles for a few minutes before bedtime. Nor does C prevent the "winter itch" we oldsters complain about. And it was of no value in preventing the annoying cracks in my finger tips that occurred every winter---but vitamin E is preventive. Not at the usual 400 units a day, however. In my case no cracks have appeared during the last 3 winters while taking at least 2,400 units a day. C regenerates E. They work well together.

......There is good reason to believe that C plus a healthy lifestyle can prolong life. In addition to the findings noted on page 140, a report in The Lancet, August 11, 2001, p472-3, states that white-cell telomeres are shorter in patients with atherosclerosis, comparing with controls 8.6 years older, on average. Telomere "caps" on the ends of chromosomes are said to determine life span. They shorten over the years as new cells are produced.

......If extra C, proper diet and exercise can prevent the diseased condition it seems that we wouldn't lose those years. Hypothetically, any other chronic infection will shorten life in the same manner, as accelerated production of white cells during infection causes them to use up their quota of telomeres sooner than normal. Then we run out of infection-fighting white cells.

......The late William Saroyan wrote that he knew people must die but hoped God would make an exception in his case. God didn't. Nor can we expect C to change the rules. But we can expect C to help prolong life up to the point allowed by our genetic program. And when someone finds a way to lengthen telomeres so that it leads to standing-room only on the planet, extra C should also make a long life more bearable.